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User blog:Holbenilord/New FTL System Required
Yeah, perhaps I should think less. Flaws with Mass-Adjustment #'It only allows FTL if you reduce your mass to trillionths of what it was before or lug around hundreds of times your mass in fuel. '''Why? Because spaceships propel themselves using Newtonian action-reaction, so by shooting out fast particles from one end you accelerate the ship. Except these particles are in the mass bubble too so their mass is less and where you could reach 1% of c before (fusion engine, say), you can now reach 1% of the new lightspeed, which is not exactly FTL. Civilisations under class X would be incapable of FTL travel. #'It makes chemical and nuclear reactions less powerful.' Why? In fission, or fusion, or antimatter annihilation, rest mass is converted into energy. Except you just made the rest mass a trillionth of what it was, so you get a trillionth of the energy. #'It allows free acceleration. Why? Say you have a cylindrical ship going along. Decrease the mass of the back end, but not the other. The back end will cause the front end to accelerate "for free". And when you remove the field, you can decelerate "for free". This does not sit well with conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. #'''It violates conservation of energy. Why? Remember number #2? Yeah. #'It might violate causality.' Why? You are objectively going faster than light. Which is a pity, because I had a mechanism worked out and it seemed so nice. Alternative? This is just an idea, and is a work in progress. It's basically hyperspace. Each universe (except for Vesania) has a 'shadow universe' attached in which space is denser. If you imagine space as a grid of co-ordinates, two points in a line in the normal universe are a million times closer in hyperspace- but your ship stays the same size and can have the same thrust. You can get into hyperspace by putting a certain number of gigawatts through a sophisticated device, but any matter not maintained by such a device falls back into the universe- spaceship exhaust and debris, for example. Theoretically any object can be moved into hyperspace as long as it has a sufficiently powerful hyperdrive attached, and they can stay there as long as the device is powered. In hyperspace, you can't see normal space and it can't see you. You could re-enter space inside a star, planet, or another ship, but it's not likely, and you'd be given good maps. However, in hyperspace your can detect things which would be far further away in the real universe (because it's smaller) and you can fight ships in hyperspace, though only through radiation and weapons with hyperdrives. Expansions If you give a hyperdrive the borderline number of gigawatts, the object exists partially in hyperspace and partially in the real universe. This allows hyperspace beacons and sensors on planets or in solar systems. Hyperspace beacons can send radio or lasers to each other through hyperspace- FTL communication. If you construct a hyperdrive backwards, it will instead generate a sphere in which hyperdrives don't work (otherwise you can jump in, drop a nuke, and jump out without a fight in an enemy system). The size of the sphere is proportionate to power supplied. A ship can't enter the hyperdenial sphere in hyperspace. You could also flicker your hyperdenial system with a frequency your ships know but the enemy doesn't, so you can get into hyperspace but they can't. Hyperspace has its own hyperspace- ultraspace, which only class X can access. Space here is attached to hyperspace, but a million times smaller again. It requires far more energy and an even more sophisticated device to access. You can go into hyperspace denial spheres through ultraspace, though when you drop down into hyperspace you will be immobile, and then you can drop down into realspace inside the sphere. Possible ultraspace denial devices in hyperspace. Possibly 'uberspace' below that? However I plan to keep repulsors- I can explain them, and they're needed for spaceship defenses and artifical gravity (they're in the ceiling pointing downwards). Results A mass campaign of Hyperdrivification is currently underway. Hyperspace - Hyperdrive Ultraspace - Ultradrive Uberspace - Uberdrive Category:Blog posts